Posts

Showing posts from August, 2020

UAPA- Tool To Shut Dissent in India

-
Image
  The death of Stan Swamy, the Jesuit priest and activist, India’s oldest political prisoner who died in jail, waiting for bail for nine months, at the age of 84 has brought the spotlight back on the Unlawful Activity Prevention Act (UAPA), the primarily counter-terror Law in India.  The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) 1967 is the  primary counter-law in India. The terror law has come under sharp scrutiny recently with various courts finding application of the UAPA (arbitrary). About The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)  Passed in 1967, the law aims at effective prevention of Unlawful activities in India. The ACT assigns absolute power to the central government, by way of which if the Centre (deems) an activity as unlawful then it may by way of an official Gazette, declare it so.  It has death penalty and life imprisonment as highest punishments. Under UAPA, both India and foreign nationals can be charged. It will be applicable to the offenders in the same manner, ev
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Facebook favoring the ruling party in India?

-
Image
Facebook has found itself at the centre of attraction in India following a report published in Wall Street Journal claiming that Facebook ignored applying its hate speech rules to a BJP leader's post in India. This report has raised questions over the strong connections between the ruling party (BJP) and Facebook, putting into the role of a top executive of the social media platform, Ankhi Das. The report published in Wall Street Journal claimed that Ankhi Das, Facebook’s public policy director for India, South and Central Asia, told employees that the initiating punitive actions against BJP leader's indulging in hate propaganda. Now this report has erupted a political fight between Congress and the BJP on the issue with the opposition demanding a free and fair probe into Facebook’s operations in India. The Congress is using the issue to set the stage for the Parliament's monsoon session which is likely to be called in September. The BJP and the government have, howev
1 comment
Read more

One year of Article 370

-
Image
On the first anniversary of the reading down of Article 370 , the kashmir valley continues to be subjected to various restrictions and proper Internet services are still barred. Many political leaders are being under detention or house arrest. Last year on 5 August the government of India revoked the special status, or limited autonomy, granted under Article 370 of Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir. This revoke led to breaking up of Jammu and Kashmir into directly administered by the government of India : one that combines Hindu- majority Jammu and Muslim- majority kashmir, and Buddhist - majority Ladakh.    One year- where do things stand?  At the time of revoking, it was stated that that reading down Article 370 would guide development and several industries would set up shop in kashmir but, this has proved to be a futile hope. The covid pandemic has made any nation wide reforms difficult to implement but even before the nation wide shutdown in March, there had be
3 comments
Read more

latest

Cinematograph(amendment)bill 2021: Step towards protection of people or Control over them?

-
Image
  A group of Filmmakers, academics, researchers, programmer's, technicians, lawyers and Civil Society have raised concerns at the proposed " Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill 2021" which among other things, seeks to confer power on the Central Government to revoke a film Censor Certificate.   As many as 1430 persons including eminent members of the film community like Vijay Krishna Acharya, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Vetri Maaran, Shabana Axmi and others have written an open letter to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry against the Bill. They have said that the move has the potential to "endanger freedom of expression and democratic dissent". What the Amendment Bill seeks to do?   — Key Provisions of the Bill -:   ●        Revision of the certification- This provision will give the Centre 'revisionary power' and enables it to '' re-examine '' films already cleared by the Central Board of Film Certificate (CBFC).
Read more

UAPA- Tool To Shut Dissent in India

-
Image
  The death of Stan Swamy, the Jesuit priest and activist, India’s oldest political prisoner who died in jail, waiting for bail for nine months, at the age of 84 has brought the spotlight back on the Unlawful Activity Prevention Act (UAPA), the primarily counter-terror Law in India.  The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) 1967 is the  primary counter-law in India. The terror law has come under sharp scrutiny recently with various courts finding application of the UAPA (arbitrary). About The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)  Passed in 1967, the law aims at effective prevention of Unlawful activities in India. The ACT assigns absolute power to the central government, by way of which if the Centre (deems) an activity as unlawful then it may by way of an official Gazette, declare it so.  It has death penalty and life imprisonment as highest punishments. Under UAPA, both India and foreign nationals can be charged. It will be applicable to the offenders in the same manner, ev
Read more

Delhi's Federalism Under Control

-
Image
The Centre has introduced the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021, reviving the dispute on the distribution of the power between the elected government and Lieutenant Governor (LG). The issue, which was at the heart of ruling party AAP and frequent clash with the BJP led Centre during of its first term. The dispute was taken up by the Constitution bench of Supreme Court, which tilted the scales in the favor of the elected government through its 4 July 2018 verdict. The Bill has been criticized by the ruling Aam Aadmi  Party in Delhi as an attempt to curtail the power of the elected government. Taking to Twitter, Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal said the Bill, which '' seeks to drastically curtail powers of elected government '', is '' against the Supreme Court judgement. Meanwhile, experts have cautioned that the amendment could face constitutional and legal hurdles as it collides with various power of the De
Read more

Petrol Price Hike : Horrors of the Past Return

-
Image
 The fuel prices in the country have been on an upward trend since ever since the declaration of assembly election in five states on May 2 2021, after oil marketing companies (OMCs) resumed their price increases in May 2021. In many states, the petrol prices have already crossed Rs 100/Liter and many states, they are inching closer to that mark. There was a total of 16 prices hike in the month of June - the same as in May 2021.   Petrol/ Diesel Pricing in India The major things on which petrol prices depends are: 1. Cost of refined crude oil 2 . Price to dealer, dealers commission and Excise duty (Central Gov), VAT (State Gov) 3. Price paid by Customer The price of fuel is governed by the international market. WTI crude oil comes from USA while Brent crude comes from Europe’s North Sea. OPEC basket comes from middle Eastern countries and Africa. Oil prices at international market at present (per barrel): -                a) WTI crude: $73.75                b) Brent crude: $75.51  
Read more